Improvement in furnaces for puddling and refining iron



.1. s. GUSTIN.

I Refining Iron. No. 2,743. V I Patented Aug. 2, 1842;

AM. PHOTO'LITHQCCLN-Y. KOSEDRNE'S PROCESS.)

UNITED STATES PATENT Orricn.

JOHN S. GUSTIN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO PETER COOPER.

IMPROVEMENT lN FURNACES FOR PUDDLlNG AND REFlNlNG IRON.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 2,743, dated August 2, 1842.

To (ZZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN S. GUsTIN, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture and Refining of Iron, in which the principles of the finery-lire are combined with the puddling process; and'I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of the same.

My invention consists in introducing into the puddlingfurnace at one or more places, as may suit the kind of iron to be worked, a current of atmospheric air, the operation of which is to decarbonize the crude iron, and also to liberate the other impurities contained therein.

To enable others skilled in the art of making iron to use my invention, I will proceed to describe its arrangement and operation, ref erence being made to drawings, hereunto annexed, of a front elevation and an end sectional view of a furnace.

I take the ordinary paddling-furnace, of which Figure 1 is a front View of a double furnace, and Fig. 2 a sectional View.

In order that the full advantages of, my invention may be obtained, I would recommend the use of anthracite coal as a fuel, it being less impregnated with sulphur than bituminous coals generally are, and the application may be made more effectually. The sides of the bottom or basin should be formed with some material-such as iron-stone ore or other materialthat will resist an extraordinary heat, such cinder as is generally used in puddling being too easily melted when exposed to the necessary heat at which the furnace should be worked. At each side of the charging-door and immediately under the roof of the furnace I pass through the side wall a tuyere, e e c e e, of about one and a half inch in diameter, pointing to the center of the bottom B. In the air-pipes a a a a a, the end of which forms thetuyere, I place at a convenient part well-fitted throttle-valves with a-handle, c 000, by which the work men may regulate the blast. Under the door or other convenient part of the furnace is a place fortapping, D,for the purpose of drawing off the cinder. The air-pipes should connect with some convenient blowing apparatus, of which the common fan-blower is probably the best.

The method of operation is as follows: Get the furnace at a proper heat, and charge it operation is continued at ordinary heat and method of puddling until the boiling or fermentation is nearly subsided, at which time the heat is to be increased and continued until the iron has come to nature. The mass of metal is then brought directly before the tuyere or air-pipes and remelted or sunk in the op eration of balling. This part of the operation should be performed'with care, exposing all parts equally to the current, so as to insure uniformity of quality to the iron, this being the refining operation in which the last traces of carbon or other impurities pass off in form of cinder or gas. The fluid cinder on the bottom, being mostly composed of impurities from the iron, should therefore be tapped and drawn off to make the best quality of iron. This operation should be performed before the metal has been brought before the tuyere or immediately after the fermentation has subsided. Should it be found thatthe kind of iron that is to be worked would be improved by being run out, as may be the case with some metal, the operation may be performed as follows:

Put the pig metal in the furnace, and when it is melted stir it, as is usual in the puddling process, keeping the metal at a bright heat. The tuyeres should be opened at the same time, so as to throw a strong current of air on the whole surface of the melted metal. WVhen it appears by the usual indication that the metal is in a JOHN S. GUSTIN.

Witnesses:

ABEL WHEATON, J12, GEO. ARMSTRONG; 

